World Rally Championship: Ott Tänak leads in Japan

Hyundai’s Ott Tänak leads the Japan World Rally Championship after 15 special stages.

The Estonian drivers have a clear lead in the race before Saturday’s final fast sky, because Toyota’s Elfyn Evans is 36.0 seconds behind Tänak. Third in the rally is Toyota Sébastien Ogier before Ford Adrien Fourmaux’ta.

Tänak’s gap at the top clearly increased on the 15th special stage, as Evans lost to him by 12.2 seconds. Ogier was the fastest of the bunch.

The top man in the World Series, who suffered from a technical fault on Friday Thierry Neuville has already risen to seventh place in the rally. In order for Neuville to secure the first world championship of his career, the Belgian would have to be sixth after Saturday.

Neuville probably won’t have a chance to get sixth on Saturday’s last lap, so he still has to grab a couple of points from Sunday.

“I have tried my best, but we have had a brake problem since morning. If I could finish seventh, it would be a matter of one point. Then it would be a pretty good setup for tomorrow,” Neuville said.

Jari-Matti Latvala from the point of view of the leading Toyota, the situation is still difficult in the manufacturer’s series. If the results remain the same until the end of Saturday, Toyota will close Hyundai’s lead in the manufacturers’ series by only four points. There would still be 11 points left for Sunday’s sprint race and the Power Stage

Sami Pajari drive in safe settings in the WRC2 class in second place. The ranking in question would be enough to secure the class championship for the Finn.

“It’s never easy to drive when you can’t just pull at full speed. Then everything is simpler. I’ve tried to keep my driving on the safe side, but still maintain some sort of rhythm,” commented Pajari.